Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Not being gay, rare it is when I focus on another man's willie, Anthony Weiner's weiner notwithstanding. And yet, today, I am being forced to focus on the genitalia of Dr. Who, the main character of a wildly popular BBC sci-fi show of the same name. As Wiki explains the series:

The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord—a time travelling, humanoid alien known as the Doctor. He explores the universe in his 'TARDIS', a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, a common sight in Britain in 1963, when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilisations, help ordinary people, and right wrongs.

The show is fast paced, funny, clever and usually quite good, though the quality does vary. Being a BBC production, the show also gets very preachy at times about modern left wing values. For but one example, the show is virulently anti-gun. That said, only on occasion does the show go so overboard in preaching modern left wing values that I turn off the television in disgust.

At any rate, every, year or two, the Doctor undergoes a metamorphosis. His body becomes fatally damaged, he goes into the TARDIS and emerges a wholly new, well, middle aged British actor. It's been going on that way since 1963. And it appears that the next Doctor, whom we will be meeting around Christmas 2013, will be played by a 55 year old Scottish comedic actor, Peter Capaldi.

This news has brought out the most estrogen laden primal scream one can imagine from one writer at The Atlantic. Bemoaning the "misogyny" of the show as well as the "cultural marinade known as The Patriarchy," the fact that the next Dr. Who, like every previous one over the past half century, will have a willie rather than a vagina has the writer's thong in a twist. Here is a taste from what is a masterpiece of gender pc writing:

And yet, not taking a bolder leap in the casting and switching up the gender and/or race of the Doctor feels like a missed opportunity. The Feminism of Doctor Who Tumblr, in anticipation of the announcement, ran a feature called The Time Lady Project, which suggested dozens of potential actresses who could play the part. Some of these were pie-in-the-sky because they were such big stars (Tilda Swinton, Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson), but many of them were in that really-good-but-not-too-big-to-commit-to Who's-grueling-schedule range. And having a woman as the smartest, bravest person in the universe, being able to fix any problem, save the world with her wits, a magical vehicle, and boundless courage--who wouldn't want to watch that show?

But instead, another white guy. The structural sexism of the show remains intact. As this will be the first-ever real-time regeneration since I've become a fan, it's a bit of a letdown. . . .

. . .Flipping the power-imbalanced relationship between a male Doctor and a female companion could have given the show a jolt of new energy and perhaps taken the storytelling in unexpected directions.

Of course, maybe it's for the best that the first female Doctor isn't in the hands of the current showrunner. During the regeneration of Mels into River Song, after all, we were treated to such Moffaty gems as her "focusing on a dress size," weighing herself, and going shopping.

And as we all know, no real women would ever concern herself with a dress size, weigh herself or go shopping. Ah, those unrealistic gender stereotypes that must be driven from polite society. I would note that River Song was a very rounded character, comparable in most ways to her husband - The Doctor. Both she and the Doctor are shown as being admirable and imperfect in their own ways - which is how it has always been with virtually every doctor and most every female companion. What the writer is really bemoaning, like virtually every modern feminist, is not the lack of equality among the sexes, but that we recognize any differences between the sexes and, ultimately, that we do not live in a matriarchal society. I am pretty sure that Instapundit's wife has had something to say on this topic.

Having read through this estrogen laced scream, I looked to the by-line, expecting it to have been written by a radical women's studies prof or a NOW organizer, or perhaps even Sandra Fluk. But no, this was written by one Ted Kissell, a middle aged white male writer and editor out of Southern California. It is my sincerest hope for Mr. Kissell that he is writing things like this simply to get in with the local femenists so that he can get laid. Otherwise, this guy needs reconditioning, testicular implants and an immediate round of testosterone therapy.

Update: The NYT has published an op-ed piece by Jennifer Finney Boylan, likewise bemoaning the fact that the next Dr. Who will have a willie. Boylan - a transgender woman, originally born James, leaves little doubt that she would see the casting a female Dr. Who as an affirmation of his / her gender choice.

Update 2: Powerline is covering a seemingly similar set of arguments being made in regards to who Obama should choose for the next Fed Chairman. I didn't know that Larry Summers had sent infamous race hustler Colonel West packing from Harvard, where he was a professor in African American Studies. Summers gets my vote for that alone.